The Auto­mo­tive Fleet & Leas­ing Asso­ci­a­tion (AFLA) held its inau­gur­al Mid-Year Forumon May 1st at The Enter­prise Cen­ter at Burling­ton Coun­ty Col­lege in Mount Lau­rel, NJ, a Philadel­phia sub­urb. This one-day event was orga­nized by the AFLA Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee as part of an ongo­ing ini­tia­tive to add edu­ca­tion­al val­ue for AFLA mem­bers.

Scott Pat­tul­lo, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent of Sales, Wheels, kicked off the day lead­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion and think tank dis­cus­sion on “Fleet from 10,000 Feet: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are and Where We’re Going.” Com­bin­ing his years of expe­ri­ence in the indus­try with a sense of humor, Scott’s pre­sen­ta­tion explored how the fleet indus­try has changed and the dif­fi­cul­ties that we can expect to face in the com­ing months and years. The small­er Forum envi­ron­ment was a per­fect match for the think tank dis­cus­sion, and all in atten­dance walked away from the ses­sion with a deep­er under­stand­ing of the issues we are cur­rent­ly fac­ing and how to pre­pare for the future in fleet.

After lunch, Phil Moser, Vice Pres­i­dent, Advanced Dri­ver Train­ing Ser­vices, led a ses­sion on “Per­son­al Safe­ty for the Busi­ness Trav­el­er.” Phil’s unique back­ground as a police offi­cer trans­lat­ed to a won­der­ful­ly infor­ma­tive and unique pre­sen­ta­tion cov­er­ing car­jack­ing, police stops and fake police, air trav­el, hotel safe­ty and street safe­ty. Phil is an engag­ing pre­sen­ter, able to con­nect with the audi­ence and keep things light while cov­er­ing seri­ous issues.

Round­ing out the day, Evan Mar­cus, Dil­lon­Mar­cus Exec­u­tive Retreats, brought every­one to their feet with “It’s O.K. to Play” which explores how to uti­lize the ele­ments of play to enhance your orga­ni­za­tion. Mid-Year Forum atten­dees took part in a “Rock, Paper, Scis­sors” com­pe­ti­tion, which cul­mi­nat­ed in rous­ing cheers as Jim Creighton won. Evan’s ses­sion was based on his book by the same title, which explores the psy­cho­log­i­cal effects of play and how it results in bet­ter focus, ener­gy and a more col­lab­o­ra­tive team.

Over­all, the Mid-Year Forum atten­dees rat­ed the day as “Excel­lent” and a great learn­ing expe­ri­ence. Keep an eye out for infor­ma­tion on future Mid-Year Forums, and be sure to reg­is­ter! As one attendee put it, “Too bad for those that missed this!”